Can You Manage a Buzzing Community?

Posted July 8, 2016

Erika Kotterer

“Why isn’t this door unlocked?!” Frantically cupping my eyes peering into DeveloperTown. It is April 1st, the first day, of my first big girl job, anddd I’m late. Someone walking by takes pity on me and lets me in, I mumble something resembling, “Thanks, I’m new” and scurry to the Verge House. (If you have not had a chance to stop by DeveloperTown, you should.)

Sitting on my desk is The book, Buzzing Communities by Richard Millington. Matt with more excitement than normal beams, “Happy First Day! Here’s a book to help!”

Mimicking as best as I can, I put on my “YES! I LOVE READING!” face, and grab the book and put it in my bag. (I have a pretty calm and just go-with-it type of demeanor, so trying to copy his excitement all the time is hard. Anyone that knows Matt…. knows he is generally always very excited)

Buzzing Communities in its simplest form, is a how-to for community managers. Millington identifies the real problems that we should focus on, and the wrong problems that community managers tend to waste time on. Community managers, will more likely than not, fall in the trap of listening to their instinct rather than data. Too many of us are reacting to a minority of members rather than focusing on the activities that make our community thrive. As community managers we overlook the need to value the community with hard facts with data to support it, which Millington mentions is crucial when surveying a community.

Follow These 8 Key Areas to Focus your Energy:

Millington identifies 8 categories/chapters that community managers should focus most of their energy: Strategy, Growth, Moderation, Events and Activities, Relationships and Influence, Business Integration, and User Experience.

The book is organized into very clear sections, with chapters, action items, and real world examples to back claims up. The sections go into moderate detail explaining what a community manager needs to do to get their online community thriving. It is supported by scholarly theories and he even throws in some macro and micro economic buzzwords. Do not be intimidated by it, it is still very relatable, easy to read, and well explained.

Millington goes into detail about why these overarching themes are important, provides tips on how to achieve, and provides specifics on how to measure how well you have done.

Every page got me more excited and fired up, I literally wanted to collect data and measure everything in the community (calm down, Kotterer).

3 reasons this book is a winner:

(1) I was actively thinking about my community while reading. I would be asking myself questions in between sentences, “Are we at this point yet?” “How do I collect data about a community!”, “Is my community healthy?”, “What value add can I bring to the table”
(2) It made my vision as a leader and manager clearer. There is a lot of noise in startup communities, and it gets loud. Focus on the right noise that will help you achieve your goals.
(3) Reiterated the importance of the return of investment (ROI) for your community and the significance of maintaining community loyalty. Millington does great job of going beneath the surface and identifying the real problems that community managers face and provides real insight and problem solving tactics.
I would recommend this book to anyone in a community management role at any level, or anyone who wants to know the inner workings of a community. Marketing and PR teams, will find this useful if they intend to build a community around their brand. If your job is to build an online community that has developed relationships around a strong common interest, this book is for you.

Update: Four months later I am now have a key card so I’m not locked out and I am equipped with skills and knowledge to be community leader…